World Briefing | Africa: Guinea: Protests Claim More Lives

Published: January 23, 2007

Seventeen people were killed in clashes in the capital, Conakry, between antigoverment protesters and security forces that opened fire on them, witnesses said. Six people were killed in two other towns. At least eight people died in clashes last week. The authorities arrested union leaders to try to break the crippling two-week general strike they called against President Lansana Cont?an ailing septuagenarian they say is too erratic to govern. ''This has become a popular uprising,'' said a union official, Ousmane Souar?''We're not in control of it.''